Announcing IBM Connections 5.5 & IBM Docs 2.0

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I'm happy to announce the upcoming availability of IBM Connections 5.5 and IBM Docs 2.0, our next major on-premises release.  As we've done with previous releases, plus,given we have a single code base for cloud and on-prem, we've taken a snapshot of our cloud, made a few adjustments here and there, and we are making that available to our on premises customers.

There's over 100 new features and there's just no way that I can cover all of this in this post.  However, if you look at all the cool things that we've delivered to our cloud offering since our last major on-prem release (ie. IBM Connections 5.0) then you'll know everything that's part of IBM Connections 5.5.

So when can you get it ? As per the announcement letter that was published minutes ago, the software will be available for download this Friday. 

Now, let me get things going and cover some of the highlights for these releases:

IBM Docs 2.0

• Inline comments are preserved while files are being edited offline (e.g. while on a plane working on a file without connectivity, you can see and reply to comments and your changes will be sync'ed back automatically when you are back in the network)
• New file viewer with high quality previews and the ability to interact with content in view mode (e.g. show/hide columns)
• Auto-publish your file updates and make them available to readers instantly or save file as draft and work with other editors before making the changes available to readers
• Support up to 20 simultaneous editors at the same time
• New API so that you can bring the power of our real-time collaborative editing capabilities to 3rd party file repositories.
• ... and more!

IBM Connections 5.5

• Organize your documents, presentations and more into your own nested folder hierarchy in Personal and Community Files
• Brand new file viewer experience which allows you to find the content that you need faster and review it quickly without having to download
• Build powerful team sites specific for your team needs (e.g. HR, Sales, Marketing, etc) with new configuration capabilities such as:
• New community layouts
• Responsive apps so you can just drag-n-drop between columns in one motion
• Rename apps based on your audience
• A brand new Rich Content app which you can use for announcements or embedding content from the web 
• and much more.. !
• Smart type-ahead search to find what you need instantly
• Enhancements to the rich text editor such as permanent pen, sort table data, and more
• Real-time alerts on your desktop (for HTML5 browsers) to notify you when content needs your attention
• ... and more!

We have a demo and a new Reviewer's Guide coming up so stay tuned for details. Want to learn more? Check out the webcast tomorrow where the product managers will take you through what is new in these releases. Want even more ? Then join us for the Ask the Product Managers session for Thursday and we'll take your questions.

So if you are using IBM Connections on-premises, get ready for an upgrade and let me know when you've upgraded!

Activity Stream portlet for IBM Connections 4.5 Now Available

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The IBM Connections portlets for IBM WebSphere Portal have been updated and are now ready for download!

With this new release you can:

• Bring the Activity Stream experience from IBM Connections into portal - this means you can surface the microblogging capability of IBM Connections in the portal, including @-mentions !
• OpenSocial Embedded Experiences are now available in Portal
• Enhancements to support ideation
• Support for Portal 8.0.0.1 CF4
• Support for IBM Connections 4.5

With this release, there are now 13 portlets that bring the power of social to the portal making it extremely easy to socialize an existing site.

Here's a screenshot of the new Activity Stream portlet in Portal:

To download, go out to our catalog and get it from here and the installation instructions are here.

Demo: What's New in IBM Connections 4.5

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By now, you have downloaded IBM Connections 4.5, which was released last Friday, and perhaps even upgraded to that release.

Over the weekend, the information development team published this video. You can use this video to share with your end users and give them a tour of the new features in this release. (share it via a blog!)

Note that this video is specific to just the new features added in this release. If you are looking for an overview demo of IBM Connections 4.5, then check this out.

The video also covers the new Connections Content Manager and there will be another video released in the next couple of days focused on just that particular add-on for those of you interested in a deep dive.

Stay tuned for more!

IBM Connections 4.5 Is Ready for Download

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The day has come! IBM Connections 4.5 is ready for download!! Partners can get the software from PartnerWorld and customers from Passport Advantage.

Let me summarize give you a couple of pointers to help you get ready to deploy:

• What's New Presentation - http://www.lbenitez.com/2013/03/replay-of-ibm-connections-45-launch.html
• IBM Connections 4.5 Documentation - http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+Connections+4.5+documentation#action=openDocument&content=catcontent&ct=prodDoc
• IBM Connections 4.5 System Requirements - http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27037782
• IBM Connections 4.5 Plug-in for IBM Notes 9 - http://www.lbenitez.com/2013/03/new-ibm-connections-plug-ins-for-ibm.html
• Planning your upgrade to IBM Connections 4.5 - http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21626551
• Redbook: Installing and deploying IBM Connections - http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0994.html?Open

Next week, I'll share two new videos to show explicitly a demo of what's new in IBM Connections 4.5 and also a deep dive on the new IBM Connections Content Manager. So stay tuned for that. For now, check out this demo which shows an overview of IBM Connections 4.5:
Now, I'm curious to know who will be the first to go into Production with 4.5

Replay of Monthly ICS Webcast featuring IBM Connections 4.5 &Connections Content Manager Webcast Now Available

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Yesterday I presented at the monthly IBM Collaboration Solutions webcast. The topic? Of course: IBM Connections 4.5 and IBM Connections Content Manager.

As Joyce Davis posted late last night, the replay is available for those that missed it (tip: you should never miss a Joyce Davis webcast) or for those who want to see it again.

There was a technical glitch with my computer where it decided to alert me that I had run out of disk space (must be all those demo movies!). After several minutes, I was able to recover and you can enjoy the fun below. I was also very happy to know that more than 80% of the attendees were planning on upgrading to version 4.5 to enjoy the new content management capabilities. Remember, the download of 4.5 will be available this Friday!

Webcast replay:

I have also shared the presentation over at SlideShare:

What’s New in IBM Connections 4.5 and IBM Connections Content Manager from Luis Benitez

If you want to download a copy of the original presentation, you can find it here on Greenhouse.

How To Create a Social Portal for Exceptional Web Experiences

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This video takes a deep dive on how to create a Social Portal for Exceptional Web Experiences. The social layer is provided by IBM Connections and using the new social rendering portlets you can create a great and compelling experience with a few clicks and, most importantly, with no coding skills required.

This is very useful when you want to open up Connections to users outside of the organization and/or you want to socialize an existing web front.

All of these capabilities are available today so there's no need to wait!

Update on 27/Mar/2013: I've embedded part 2 of the series and thanks to Ken Krause for doing this!!

Enjoy

New IBM Connections Plug-Ins for IBM Notes 9 Now Available

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In conjunction with the new IBM Notes 9.0 release today, we have also just released the latest IBM Connections plug-ins for the best email client available delivering the world's first social email experience to the market.

The new plug-in adds support for:

• IBM Notes 9.0
• IBM Connections 4.5
• Mac OS X 10.8
• Windows 8

Additionally, the Connections business card has now been redesigned and the plug-in now provides a single installer to enable all the integration points to Connections: microblogging, file sharing, and tasks. As you probably know the plug-in allows you to:

• Attach a file to a status update
• Like / unlike a status update
• Activity stream integration allows to monitor updates for all Connections services
• Search by people and communities
• Post status letting your colleagues know what you are doing
• View status for people in your network
• Comment on status updates
• Delete your status or associated comments
• Forward an update by email
• View or post updates from the icon in the system tray when you are not working in the Notes client
• Keep up with updates for people you follow
• Lock/unlock files
• Upload files for your own use or to share with others
• Drag and drop an attached file or a file from your desktop to Files
• Drag and drop or copy and paste a file from Files to your desktop
• Send an HTML link to a file
• Search for people or communities
• Sort files for easier browsing
• Detach the Files window from the Notes sidebar

So if you are upgrading to IBM Notes 9.0 and/or IBM Connections 4.5 you must get this plug-in today! To learn more about IBM Notes 9, check out this 90 second video from Ed Brill:

And for a demo of these features check out:

To download the new plug-in, you can get it from our app catalog over here.

iEnterprises Demonstrates Solution to Connect Facebook and Twitter to IBM Connections

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Let's keep on sharing the IBM Connect 2013 news. Again, one of the things that I was extremely happy to see was the large number of new partners and apps being built for IBM Connections.

This one comes from iEnterprises where they have developed a solution to take status updates from IBM Connections and post them to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter via a control panel. Users can connect their accounts to their favorite social networks and have their status updates cross posted if desired. iEnterprises can also determine if a status update should go through an approval process before being posted externally based on some pre-configured criteria.

The solution takes advantage of OpenSocial and embedded experiences to allow managers to approve and manage this integration directly from email notifications !

Check out the 5 minute demo below:

Very cool!

IBM Connect 2013 Opening General Session Replay is Here

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The Opening General Session of IBM Connect 2013, aka the Keynote, aka the OGS, is now available for replay.

This year I had the opportunity to be one of the demo'ers during the keynote. Last year I was part of the demo team helping mostly backstage and making sure the servers were ready. This year was a completely different experience being front and center.

Doing one of the demos at the #IBMConnect keynote is one of those things that I've wanted to do for a while. When I first went to the conference back in 2008 I saw Suzanne Livingston up on stage and wondered if I could ever do that. When I got the call back in October I was extremely happy (and nervous!) to have such an opportunity.

The following 3 months were pretty hectic trying to figure out what to say, what to demo, the scenario to use, etc. It was an incredible experience and I learned a LOT, for example, how to say only what you need in the most concise way to get your point across (which was super helpful since my demos tend to be very long). At one point, I had 15 minutes of demo which I had to trim to 10 minutes and it was extremely tough to decide what to cut. Looking at the script, I showed 35 features in 10 minutes which, if I'm doing my math correctly, comes out to about 1 feature every 20 second!

After Connect, I took a couple of days off to fully disconnect and recharge for what promises to be an amazing 2013. If you missed the OGS, you can watch it here:

Watch live streaming video from ibmsoftware at livestream.com

If you are interested in the 5 minute highlights, then check out this video:

Watch live streaming video from ibmsoftware at livestream.com

I'll be sharing more about IBM Connect in future posts as I go back and catch up with my regular day job!

Announcing the IBM Connections 4.0 Plug-ins for Notes

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I'm pleased to announce that we have just released the latest IBM Connections 4.0 plug-ins for Notes.  Unlike previous releases, we've now combined all of the Notes plug-ins into a single install.

Here's a highlight of some of the new and enhanced features:

• NEW: attach a file to a status update
• NEW: like / unlike a status update
• NEW: Activity stream integration allows to monitor updates for all Connections services
• NEW: search by people and communities
• NEW: Lock/unlock files
• NEW: Connections 4.0 style UI (improved formatting and layout, enlarged images, additional content including like and comment counts).
• View status updates for your colleagues, communities or organization (support for "Discover" view).
• View your board or someone else's board.
• NEW:  Microblogging within a community
• NEW:  Post a file as attachment along with posting a Status Update.
• Support for Linux desktops

I believe that these plug-ins are extremely important in helping drive the adoption of the IBM Social Business platform.  A lot of customers have been re-iterating how powerful these plug-ins are since they bring the power of social to the end user, instead of forcing the user to learn a new interface and collaborate in a different context.

If you haven't seen the plug-in in action yet, I'll be posting a demo movie later. For now, here's a screenshot that I took last year and will be sharing more later this week:

You can download the plug-ins from our App Catalog as usual here.

Demo: IBM Connections Mobile App for Android

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IBM today released a new update for the IBM Connections App for Android mobile devices. Back in August 2011, the first version of this app was released to the Android Marketplace and now today the latest update for this app is now available for download from Google Play.

Looking at the reviews for the app, so far the uptake has been tremendously positive. And I'm sure that with this update more and more people will enjoy using this app.

This update has a massive list of new features and improvements:

• New and improved user experience
• New getting started tutorial
• New interface for Profiles
• Native integration of Profiles with device (e.g. save contact in device for access offline, share contact, click-to-call, etc)
• Generate QR codes for contacts
• New search capabilities, including type-ahead search!
• New cached views for faster response times
• Support for multiple IBM Connections accounts (e.g. inside/outside firewall)
• Support to access files offline (and encrypted) on the device
• Ability to share files with communities
• Save pictures locally (offline)
  
• Ability for administrators to control branding/look-n-feel from server
• Ability  for administrators to add additional menu items from server
• Ability for administrators to add a custom end user agreement
• Ability for administrator to customize the login form
• App provisioning via email
• Support for Single Sign On solutions such as WebSEAL/TAM, Siteminder, and SPNEGO

As you can see, this is a massive release, so make sure you go out to Google Play right now and download the latest update. And if you haven't installed it, go ahead and give it a try. The app is pre-configured for Greenhouse, so simply enter your credentials and off you go.

Check out this demo that I recorded recently giving you a brief preview of some of the features included in the app:

To download the IBM Connections Mobile App for Android for free, click here. (By the way, if you are interested in the iOS app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch devices, click here)

Enjoy! (in the meantime, we'll keep working on the next release!)

New iPad / iPhone App Available for IBM Connections

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IBM today released the latest update of the IBM Connections Mobile app for iOS ( iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch). The universal app for IBM Connections was initially released late last year. This release delivers on the roadmap shown at earlier this year at Lotusphere 2012 and is the Spring 2012 release. Check out this long list of new features in this:

• New and improved user experience
• New getting started tutorial
• New interface for Profiles
• Native integration of Profiles with device (e.g. save contact in device for access offline, share contact, click-to-call, etc)
• New search capabilities, including type-ahead search!
• New cached views for faster response times
• Support for multiple IBM Connections accounts (e.g. inside/outside firewall)
• Support to access files offline (and encrypted) on the device
• Ability to share files with communities
• Save pictures locally (offline)
  
• App provisioning by email
• Ability for administrators to control branding/look-n-feel from server
• Ability  for administrators to add additional menu items from server
• Ability for administrators to add a custom end user agreement
• Ability for administrator to customize the login form
• Support for Single Sign On solutions such as WebSEAL/TAM, Siteminder, and SPNEGO

As you can see, this is a massive release, so make sure you go out to the iTunes App Store right now and download the latest update. And if you haven't installed it, go ahead and give it a try. The app is pre-configured for Greenhouse, so simply enter your credentials and off you go.

I've captured a demo showing these latest updates which you can see below:

Get the IBM Connections app for iPad now for free from here!

Enjoy! (in the meantime, we'll keep working on the next release!)

New Widgets Available for IBM Connections Communities

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The past few weeks I've been heads down focusing on the IBM Connections Suite launch so there a couple of things that I've wanted to announce that have slipped. So let's catch up.

As you probably know, the best way to find extensions for IBM Connections is the app catalog. In the past few weeks, there's been tons of new things added to the catalog. So let me summarize:

1. New IBM Connections Portlets - The new 3.0.1.1 portlets for IBM Connections includes community pages which you can use to quickly associate a portal page with an IBM Connections community. When you do that, the page is automatically scoped to the community membership. Addittionally, you can now integrate with the Portal Search center. Stay tuned for a demo of this to be published soon!
2. Talkwheel widget for IBM Connections Communities - Talkwheel is a visual discussion platform that brands can embed anywhere, uniting and allowing your Facebook fans to talk to users on your IBM Connections page. To learn more and get the widget click here and check out the demo below.
   
   
   
3. Community File Usage Quota - This is a Greasemonkey script which allows you to see how much disk space is being used by community files. To get this, click here.
4. Enhanced Email Notification Template, Polls, User self-registration, @-mentions, and other add-ons - An IBMer from Australia has published a paper and a downloadeable asset which explains how to create certain modules for Connections such as a polling engine, a user self-registration module, and how to use the APIs to do what you want.
5. IBM Social Widgets for IBM Connections - Last but not least, a set of 8 new widgets, count them, 8 new widgets for IBM Connections Communities. These widgets are: Assets (show people and subject areas to which
   
   
   • Assets - show a table of assets stored in IBM Connections Files application
   • Community Contact - show people and a subject areas to which they are associated
   • Community Leaders - show the leaders of your community
   • Community Photos - store photos related to a community
   • Events - create community events and invite people, view your events in a calendar
   • Announcements - post announcements for the community
   • Review - join others in the community in reviewing a subject
   • Videos - post videos (including from YouTube) relevant to your community
   
   
   So those community managers looking to add some more spice to their communities, definitely check out these widgets which add a lot of features to your current communities. To download these new widgets, click here.

I also shared some of this as we recorded this week's episode of This Week in Lotus yesterday and discussed the new IBM Connections Suite. Stay tuned for that episode.

How To Add Twitter Search Widget to IBM Connections Communities

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In my previous blog post, I shared how to add a 'Subscribe in iTunes' button to the Media Gallery in IBM Connections. In the video that I shared, you may have noticed a widget that I had added to my demo community in IBM Connections.

I've created a simple widget that exposes Twitter's Search widget inside of a community. You can configure this widget so that you can specify which hashtags to monitor. The widget updates in almost real-time every time someone uses the hashtag in Twitter. This is great if you want to have a community that supports a product launch, or a customer support community, or even a social media marketing community.

I'm working right now to get the widget posted in the Lotus App Catalog. Once the widget is there you'll be able to simply install it on your server.

UPDATE: 16/Feb/2012 - The widget is now available in the catalog here.

If you want to use it immediately, you can use the copy that's running on my publicly facing server by following these instructions:

1. Follow the steps here to check-out and modify widgets-config.xml
2. In the section for community add the following 1 line of code
   
   

   <widgetDef defId="TwitterSearch" url="http://blog.lbenitez.com/widgets/TwitterSearch/twitterSearchWidget.xml" modes="view edit" primaryWidget="false" iconUrl="http://www.twitter.com/favicon.ico" uniqueInstance="true"/>

   
   
   
3. That's it!! 1 line of code! Now, save and close the file and check it back in as documented in the instructions in step 1.

Once you restart IBM Connections, you'll be able to add the widget to any community and configure it for any hashtag. This simple widget took me about 10-15 minutes to code showing once again the extensibility and flexibility of IBM Connections. And because it was created by me, do note it's not officially supported by IBM and is provided as-is.

Here's a video that shows the widget in action.


Let me know what you think and if there are any simple changes you would recommend. I'll also be demoing this on my Monday session at Lotusphere '12 #ls12 so hope to see you there!

10 Social Business Myths - Busted!

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Today, a colleague shared this video which was posted to YouTube a couple of hours ago as well. The video features Louis Richardson while doing a keynote in Denmark. I blogged about Richardson's presentation last week where he shows how to increase the value of email by embracing social software.

Richardson follows the format of the famous TV Show MythBusters. For those of you who haven't seen the show (which by the way is one of my favorite shows, always on my TiVo and one of my dream jobs!), 2 Hollywood special effects experts take myths for a test and prove whether or not they are real (or plausible). For example, the MythBusters once demonstrated that it doesn't make sense to run in rain as you'll get wetter that way. But I digress.

In the video, Richardson talks about the following myths:

1. Social is "new"
2. Social is a waste of time
3. Social will get out of control
4. You can prove social during a pilot
5. People love to share all they know
6. Social will replace email completely
7. Microblogging is useless
8. You know what your people want in a social solution
9. Social is just noise
10. Adoption is the measure of success

Here's the 30 minute keynote. The talk is about 24 minutes and there's about 8 minutes of questions towards the end. This video is a MUST watch:

Is there a myth that you've heard that wasn't addressed here?

Notes Customers Now Entitled to IBM Connections Profiles and Files

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As you may have seen by now in Ed Brill's blog, today IBM is announcing a new entitlement option for existing Notes customers. With Notes 8.5.3, customers are now entitled to use IBM Connections Profiles and Files.

Seems like most people are excited with this announcement, as they should be! To me, the biggest benefit will be seen by the Notes users who will now be able to leverage Connections directly from their Notes client thanks to all the awesome (free!!) Connections plugins we have in our app catalog. For example, Notes users that didn't have Connections before, now will have the ability to:

• Hover over a name and see a user's business card
• Search for files and people
• See and post status updates
• Drag-n-drop Files from Connections into an email or vice versa

Of course, there are other plugins for Notes (e.g. for Activities and Bookmarks) so when a customer trades-up to the full IBM Connections offering, they'll even get more value from their Notes client. I've seen several questions come up as to how to install Connections (for those that have never done it). A tech note has been published which explains how to install only Profiles and Files with Notes 8.5.3.

As the entitlement states, Homepage is not entitled so here's how you would disable Homepage once everything has been installed:

1) Check out the LotusConnections-config.xml with the command LCConfigService.checkOutConfig("C:/temp","foo01Cell01") as documented here: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/dx/Editing_configuration_files_ic301

2) Open the file with your favorite text editor

3) Find the text listed below (it'll be similar to this):

 

/homepage





3) Set the enabled and ssl_enabled parameters to false, for example:

enabled="false" serviceName="homepage" ssl_enabled="false">

/homepage





4) Check the file back in

5) Restart IBM Connections.

Homepage is now hidden from end users. I'm anxious to see even more users on Connections now with this entitlement!

IBM Releases BlackBerry, Android and iOS Native Apps for IBM Connections

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IBM has released 3 native mobile applications to the most popular mobile app stores: Android Market, iTunes App Store, and BlackBerry's App World. The native mobile applications bring IBM's social software platform, IBM Connections, to the mobile world. IBM previously supported mobile access via the mobile's browser, although various business partners had created their own iOS apps for IBM Connections.  Moreover, IBM has done a tremendous job ensuring all three apps have the same capability.

The release is very important as more and more companies such as Colgate-Palmolive let employees bring their own devices to work.  Employees can now collaborate on the go with their preferred mobile device.

iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad app for IBM Connections

Continuing with their Social Everywhere strategy, IBM has also made all apps available for free.

One of the things that you'll notice is that now the ideation and media gallery modules are natively available in the mobile apps. Now, you can vote on ideas, comment on ideas, and manage the ideas while on the go. As well, you can take pictures and upload pictures while at a conference and immediately share them with your colleagues through the app.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the iOS app on an iPhone. (Note: the app will run in an iPad in 2x mode).


Since I only have iOS devices (iPhone 4 and an iPad 1) I can only comment on the iOS device. I've been using it now for about 10 weeks and I really like it. I find myself more and more engaged in microblogging activities. I also like going out to customer sites carrying only my iPad. From my iPad I can access my files stored in IBM Connections, download them and present to a customer. I can even search for files which is nice because sometimes a customer may ask to see something so I can go on and search everyone's files, download their presentation and show it to them directly from the iOS app. It's a very good, seamless experience. Of course, I also like that I don't have to enter my credentials every time I want to use the mobile app. With the mobile browser experience, you were always forced to authenticate.

To download the free iOS app for IBM Connections, click here.

BlackBerry app for IBM Connections

BlackBerries with BlackBerry OS6 and later are supported. Screenshots of the BlackBerry App.



To download the free BlackBerry app for IBM Connections, click here.

Android app for IBM Connections

Android 2.2 is required to run the mobile app.


To download the free Android app for IBM Connections, click here.

What about users without an Android, iOS or BlackBerry device?  Users with Nokia Symbian devices can still access the mobile version of IBM Connections via their phone's microbrowser.

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Article first published as IBM Releases Native Android, iOS, and BlackBerry apps for its Social Software Platform on Technorati.

IBM Connections Files Plugins Now Supported on Mac

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Today, IBM released new plugins to make their social platform even more accessible for Mac users. Mac users now have one new plugin they can use directly from their desktop.

The first plugin is the Files plugin. The plugin allows you to access, share, and search all of your files. You can also view files that you have shared, files that have been shared with you, files that belong to a particular person, or all public files. Of course, having access to your files from your desktop is not a new capability per se. Users, including Mac users, have been able to use the free Adobe Drive software to access the files from Windows Explorer or Mac's Finder for quite some time.

Once you find the file you want, you can double-click to open the file or you can drag-n-drop the file into a new email message or instant message. IT will certainly love this feature since it will reduce the bandwidth required to constantly send files back and forth and it will also reduce storage needs. End-users will also like this feature because it'll help them save space and not hit their email quotas.

Here you can see the various views provided by the plugin.

One of the features that I really like is the ability to drag-n-drop files from my desktop directly into the plugin. When I do so, a dialog comes up asking if I want to upload the file to my personal file share, share with a one or more people, or simply make it private. I like this feature because I no longer have to manually open a browser, log on to the system, upload the file, etc. I can do it from a single drag-n-drop action and even notify users that I've uploaded a file.



The other plugin that was released was the microblogging or Status Updates plugin. The plugin integrates directly into my mail client and I can keep up with what's going on in my organization directly from the sidebar. Of course, applications like Connections Glue have existed for a while (which I **really** like), but I have to say that I like how it's nicely integrated into my email client.

As usual, the plugins are available for free and can be downloaded from the Lotus App Catalog. The direct link for the Files plugin is here and the direct link for the Status Updates plugin is here.

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Article first published as IBM Releases New Mac OS Plugin for Connections on Technorati.

I love it! embed.ly in IBM Connections

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The other day I was catching up on my podcasts and heard of this service called http://embed.ly. It sounded very cool because it promised to make content embedding very easy. It leverages the open format oEmbed to convert links in a webpage to embeddable content.

This got me thinking about whether or not I could use this to spice up the activity stream in Connections. That way if someone shares a link via a microblog, wiki, blog, forum, etc, the actual content would be embedded into the Connections experience and I don't have to leave the site. I looked around in embed.ly's page and stumbled upon this tutorial.

In the tutorial, I noticed that all it took was 5 lines of code. I *had* to give it a try! I launched my Connections demo server and, in fact, after adding those 5 lines of code, content in Connections started to become alive.

Here's a quick demo that demonstrates how it looks:

So how did I do it? Simply follow these steps and you'll be up and running in no time:

1. If you haven't yet, copy footer.jsp to the customization directory. For example, copy <WAS_PROFILE_ROOT>/installedApps</cellName>/Activities.ear/oawebui.war/nav/templates/footer.jsp to <IC_INSTALL_ROOT>/data/shared/customization/common/nav/templates
2. If you haven't yet, copy header.jsp to the customization directory. For example, copy <WAS_PROFILE_ROOT>/installedApps</cellName>/Activities.ear/oawebui.war/nav/templates/header.jsp to <IC_INSTALL_ROOT>/data/shared/customization/common/nav/templates
   
3. Switch to the <IC_INSTALL_ROOT>/data/shared/customization/common/nav/templates directory
4. Open header.jsp with your favorite text editor
5. At the beginning of the file, look for the last <div class="lotusRightCorner">. Just before that, add the following code:
   
   

   <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script> <script src="http://scripts.embed.ly/jquery.embedly.min.js"></script>

   
   
   
6. That's 2 lines of code. We are almost there. Now, save and close the file
7. Open footer.jsp with your favorite text editor
8. Scroll to the very bottom of the file and add the following 3 lines (NOTE: Updated on 31/Aug/2011 to reflect some changes required by embed.ly, mainly the 'key' parameter and the 'urlRe' parameter. The urlRe parameter specifies which domains you want to embed. To pick and choose which domains you want to embed [for example, if you only want to embed content from YouTube], then go here: http://embed.ly/tools/generator . In the example below, I've chosen to embed all services that embed.ly supports as of 31/Aug/2011):
   
   

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}); } setTimeout(callEmbedly, 8000); </script>

   
   
   
9. That's it!! 5 lines of code as promised! Now, save and close the file.

Easy, right? Now, everywhere a link shows up in Connections (again, it could be a forum, blog, wiki, status update, etc), the link will be automatically converted into the embeddable object).

To sign up for a free embed.ly account, go here. Another alternative is oohEmbed.

Enjoy!

How To Build a Status Update application for Facebook, Twitter and Connections using Portlet Factory

Tweet

Because I've shared so many Connections coding tips and how-to's, I'm often asked to help provide some guidance on how to create an application from scratch that integrates Connections with product X.

This video came to my attention last week and it's pretty cool. It starts with a demo of what the application is (a portlet that can simultaneously update your status in Connections, Twitter and Facebook, if enabled by the end user).

There are several things that really stand out in this demo. First, I really liked how the video shows that you can use the standard Java library provided by Twitter. Second, the demo shows how this same application looks like from an iPhone (or any mobile device) with no additional coding. The only thing that had to happen was to add the 'mobile theme' in portlet factory and voilá.

Enjoy!